Oscar Carmona was born in 1975 in Santiago of Chile.
Starts his piano studies when he was 14 years old at the Almirante Barroso Experimental School of Music, entering two years later into the Music National Conservatory to study piano with Fernando Cortés. In 1994 he enters at the Facultad de Artes de la Universidad de Chile to get a degree on Music Licentiate. In 1997 he studied Music Composition, in the same college, attending classes with mastersAliocha Solovera in composition and counterpoint, Cirilo Vila in stylistic harmony, and Juan Amenábar in electro-acoustic music, among others.
In 1998 he gets the Second Distinction in the XXIII Chilean Music Festival with his work "2 Piezas Negras"for solo piano. During this same year he wins the Composition Competition in homage to the fifty years from the death of the Chilean poet Vicente Huidobro with his work "Horizón Carré" for female voice, piano and two percussionists.
In 1999 Carmona enters to the National Composers Association of Chile. In 2001 he received the Andes Foundation Scholarship to finish his studies in Chile. In the same year his String Quartet was selected and performed in the ISCM World Music Days Festival in Yokohama, Japan, by the Excelsior Quartet. In 2002 he received the Special Prize in the Composition Competition at the Universidad Católica de Chile for his work "Poema Crucificado" ("El Abandonado") for 16 voices a capella, and his electro-acoustic work "Kinesis" was selected in "IV International Biennale of Electro-acoustic Music"in Sao Paulo, Brazil. In the same year his String Quartet was performed in the Festival “Two Days and Two Night of New Music” in Odessa, Ukraine.
In 2003 his work "Configuraciones" was selected and performed by Hinko Haas, Bojan Gorisek (pianos) and Les Percussions de Strasbourgin ISCM World Music Days Festival in Ljubljana, Slovenia. In 2004 his work "Cygnus X - 1", for piano and tape, was finalist in theINTERNATIONAL GAUDEAMUS MUSIC COMPETITION 2004, and his work "Nebula IV", for flutist with amplified flute, was selected and performed by Matthias Ziegler in the ISCM World Music Days Festival in Switzerland.
During 2005 his works has been performed in the festivals ISCM World Music Days Festival in Zagreb, Croatia; “Two Days and Two Nights of New Music” in Odessa, Ukraine, Music Encounters at the DePaul University in Chicago, USA; Festival Encuentros in Buenos Aires, Argentine, and ArtCologne, in Cologne, Germany.
In 2006 he participated in the Encuentro de Composición INJUVE, in Spain, where taked master classes with Kaija Saariaho, Martín Matalón and Mauricio Sotelo. In addition, his work “Nebula VII” for amplified violin, was played by Irvine Arditti, in the festival ISCM World Music Days in Stuttgart, Germany.
In 2007 he was selected to attend the composition workshop at Centre Acanthes with a new orchestral piece, where taked individual classes with Yan Maresz and Marco Stroppa. The new work, "En Dehors II", was performed by the Orchestre National de Lorraineconducted by Jacques Mercier.
Currently, he teaches music composition, harmony, counterpoint and orchestration at the Facultad de Artes of the Universidad de Chileand at the Escuela de Música ARCIS.
http://www.ocarmona.scd.cl/